News

Camden Council publishes fire risk assessments for tower blocks on the Chalcots Estate

Camden Council has published the most recent fire risk assessments for Bray, Burnham, Blashford, Dorney and Taplow tower blocks.

These can be viewed on Camden’s Open Data website, along with an explanatory cover note, summaries of actions taken in response to issues identified and a set of frequently asked questions.

Councillor Georgia Gould, Leader of Camden Council, said: “We’re committed to leading a new era in resident safety in Camden and part of this includes being open with the information we hold. A month on from the tragedy of Grenfell Tower in Kensington, here in Camden we’ve taken action to test cladding on our tower blocks, repair internal issues at the Chalcots and publish the first batch of fire risk assessments. We’re also carrying out enhanced fire safety checks on every block in Camden.

“Our response will be an ongoing process, and together with the support and insight of tenants, leaseholders and the fire service on our new Fire Safety Panel, we’ll seek to identify and rectify fire safety concerns earlier, make all future fire risk assessments public and adopt the latest guidance for safety in tower blocks.

“It's clear that both here and across the country, there needs to be a renewed focus on safety, with no compromises.”

Standard industry practice to date has been to carry out fire risk assessments on the communal areas of blocks only. As such they only provide a partial picture of the fire safety of a building and have not covered the cladding and the interiors of individual flats.

The fire risk assessments provide a snapshot of fire safety at the point in time at which they were carried out. They come with an action plan showing points that need to be addressed and timescales which the report specifies for the completion of those works.